


as after sunset

by toli-a (togina)



Category: Justified
Genre: Episode: s01e01 Pilot, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 07:40:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17803838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/togina/pseuds/toli-a
Summary: The last thing Boyd had seen was the dust cloud Raylan left behind.





	as after sunset

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr (I'm toli-a there, too). Title from Sonnet 73, William Shakespeare.

It’s been twenty years since Boyd last saw Raylan. Twenty years since Raylan said, “Fuck this place,” and spat into Harlan dirt for the last time, hands dark with coal and still shaking, head to toe, shaking like a tree in a storm, shaking like the lights had before the tunnel caved in. “Fuck this place,” Raylan said, and turned away without meeting Boyd’s eyes, didn’t say, _And fuck you, too_ , but he’d meant it, he’d spat it into the black dirt at Boyd’s feet.

“I’m never going back there,” Raylan had sworn, and instead of murmuring his agreement—instead of grabbing Raylan’s shivering, trembling, shuddering hand and holding on, the way he’d reached out and clung to and held on in the mines—Boyd had said, “Well, now, Raylan,” and Raylan had turned away.

The last thing Boyd had seen was the dust cloud Raylan left behind, tearing out of the parking lot like he was still running from the seam, like there were still slabs of coal coming down around his ears. The last thing Boyd saw was Raylan’s shaking hands, saw them in his dreams for the next twenty years, saw his own hands reach out too late to hold on.

Boyd takes Raylan’s hand first, before he does anything else, before he pours Raylan a glass, before he asks after Raylan’s daddy and tells Raylan the story he tells his new recruits, before his curiosity gets the better of him and he delivers an ultimatum he’s not sure either of them will follow through. He swings open the church doors and hurries down the steps and reaches out to catch hold of Raylan’s outstretched hand. Raylan’s hand is steady in Boyd’s. It’s steady around his glass. It’s steady in the courthouse, when Boyd lays down the law.

Boyd doesn’t see Raylan’s hand on the gun. Raylan would say it was steady then, too, Boyd knows, but if that’s so, then why does he miss Boyd’s heart? Raylan’s hand wraps around the gun and he shoots—and oh, Boyd had spent decades picturing his own death, never dared to hope it might be dealt by the same hands that haunted his dreams—but he misses Boyd’s heart. The last thing Boyd sees is Raylan’s face, because this time Raylan doesn’t turn away. The last thing Boyd feels are Raylan’s hands pressed into his chest, dark with blood and shaking as they try to hold back the tide. “You did it,” Boyd whispers, closes his eyes and doesn’t say, _You’re here,_ _Raylan_. _You’re still here._


End file.
